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History of the Smartwatch

First episode of a series called a Series of Disruption in and of Wearable Technology. When you have a second to watch this video, pay attention to the evolution of Smartwatches, and how it has not just been a desire recently to own a smartwatch…but since 1880.

You will witness the 5 milestones to the existence of the Smartwatch derived from The Smartwatch Group:

Foundation

Imagination

Electronification

Experimentation

Commercialization

Moore’s Law:

After discussing present day devices, we go into exactly how this is all possible. How computers are developing to be faster and smaller, and why we are capable of creating such innovative devices that we have wanted since 1880. Furthermore, Moore’s Law is defined as, by Gamespot.com as the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit would double around every two years.

8 Responses to History of the Smartwatch

Deniz Yalcin’s video, “History of Smartwatches,” was very intriguing to say the least. It was interesting to see the evolution of watches over the years— especially since the idea of a smart watch is not as new as many would expect. I personally believed that the idea of a smart watch was recently new (at the very most only four or 5 years old, tops), however it is evident after watching this video that the idea of a smart watch has been around since the middle of the 20th century— smart watches were seen as a futuristic and even alien gadget, sure, but the idea was swimming around everyone’s mind. I remember my mother’s first reaction to the Apple Watch was that she could finally talk into her watch like they do in Star Trek, one of the movies mentioned in Deniz’s video. It is interesting to think that the actual creation of the smart watch began so long ago, as well. The fact that in 1970 an electronic watch was created is crazy— I always considered that invention to be buried in the inventions of the 90’s. It is also insane to see the watches that were created in the 90’s— “smart” watches truly began back then, being able to perform multiple tasks.

One of my favorite books, Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku, outlines the technology that is probable for the near future. In the book, he breaks down the possibilities into timelines for release: from one year out, five years out, ten years out, and twenty + years out. One interesting idea that stems from this book is Moore’s Law, which Deniz touched on: the computing capacity used in fighter jets twenty years ago is less computing capacity then what is contained in the calculator watches that six-year-olds use. At the end of Deniz’s video, he brought up a very interesting point which is also expanded upon in Physics of the Future: eventually, the computing power of chips will become so large and chips themselves will become so small that anything around us could become a smart device. Michio Kaku I believe takes it a step too far, claiming that the trees and grass could theoretically become linked up to the Internet.

With this progression of Internet capable technologies, the idea of Internet security becomes a very large issue: if all of our devices are being synced through the Internet, what is protecting our location and our data? As it turns out, not much. The services that we use hide terms in our contracts that make it so we sign away the rights to our data— our data is in effect theirs. Not to mention the government surveillance and apprehension of data that occurs on a daily basis without the need for warrants. This is truly one of the most distressing ideas in such a modern age: our information is being collected and stored by the government, without our say in it. Truly, we are becoming more Orwellian as we increase our technological capabilities. It is very interesting to consider having such great leaps in technology such as having computer chips in everything we buy, but it is also imperative that we ask ourselves what our security risks are in that situation as well.

Deniz Yalzin’s video was very interesting, as it provided both insightful and relevant information regarding a piece of technology that has been stealing the interest of many people within society. I personally had little interest regarding the smart watch and only saw it as a pointless piece of overpriced equipment once the Apple Watch came out. however, after watching Deniz’s video I was able to gain much more valuable information while getting a better idea of the history of the smart watch. I had thought that the Apple Watch was one of the first of its types, and had no idea that prototypes and experimental models has existed way before that time period. I remember back in high school when my wealthier friend was one of the first kids in the school to get an Apple Watch. Also getting a special wrist band adding up to a total cost of $1,400, most of my friends told him that he wasted all of his money for no good reason. For the longest time everyone would continue to roll their eyes whenever he would talk about the great features of the watch, since everyone viewed it more as a waste of money. I certainly agreed with that perspective and still hold true to the opinion that getting the watch right when it came out and buying an extra expensive wrist band is a bit too much for a smart watch. But like I said, that’s my personal opinion. However, looking at the technology of the watch in itself and watching Deniz’s video definitely shows that the Smart Watch has its benefits. in addition to being able to being a practical everyday accessory, the data and updates of your essential smart phone can now be accessed whenever looking at your wrist for the time. I also know that the smart watch has its negative impacts, especially in the school setting. Once the apple watch got more credibility and more students started purchasing the watch, realizing my friend was not crazy, they began using the watch for more personal and despicable means. We all know the typical cheating scenario for a test-a student used to pull out a cheat sheet or right on themselves. This was obviously a very obvious method of cheating, since most kids who did this in my class situations usually got caught if they had a cheat sheet. Once smartphones became prominent, everyone used these devices, having pictures of study guide and the infinite internet at their disposal! This method of cheating has been incredibly prominent since a phone is smaller than a paper and has far more resources as well. Even then, phones are quite noticeable if a student is not able to conceal it well enough. I was always ashamed of my fellow classmates who resorted to cheating, especially with smart phones. While cheating was against my personal ethics, I also was incapable to cheat on the levels of some of my peers due to the fact that i did not own a smartphone for my high school career. Anyway, as I was saying, once the smart watch gained popularity, student s began pulling up pictures of the test on their watch. I first noticed this when I saw a student constantly looking at his right wrist as if he was looking at the time. After closer observation i realized that the watch was a smartphone as i caught him swiping between photos. Another dead give away was the student being forgetful to take off his own watch that was on his left wrist. I found out he had borrowed the smart watch from a friend for a test. After seeing that act my opinion of the smart watch was that it had more possibilities for the unethical versus the practical and convenient. I really did enjoy watching Deniz’s video and agreed with his theory that Moore’s Law will probably not apply at all later down the line. However, we all know how imperfect technology is. While it is incredibly accurate, there are times of malfunction and the potential to use technology for incredibly harmful ways. It is important to create that while we build upon technology in effort to “better society”, it can just as easily be used to destroy it.

. For many years people kept thinking that wrist watches could do much more than they already do. Star Trek and inspector gadget triggered people to think more and more about what the future has when it comes to technology. . In 1970 Quartz watches revolutionize the industry by making an electric display. Pulsar and Casiotron are also companies that start the push toward electric watches. All watches up to this time were like the traditional watches we see today with the three hands that tick. In 1990 the first smartwatch is introduced and the sales struggled too many peoples surprise. At&t gets a patent for a wearable wrist phone which they pushed hard in 1990 with advertisement. Samsung also makes a MP3 player that can play your music once loaded. IBM introduces its first smartwatch which includes fingerprint technology and a Bluetooth setting. 2012 is when smart watches really started to sell and many of the biggest companies in the world took notice. The pebble in 2012 was the smartwatch that kick started the trend that we see today. Pebble was able to make over 10 million dollars which is unheard of for selling a smart watch. In 2012 they sold 70,000 watches which was much more than any of the other smartwatches out at this time. In 2015 we see the evolution of smartwatches in full affect with Samsung gear S2 which has a round face. Microsoft tried to make their own watch called the band which failed miserably. Apple has their smart watch which has shatter all of the records for sales of a smart watch. Interested in a gold Apple watch? I hope you have 17,000 dollars to give Apple for it. A smartwatch has to be broken down to see how it works. Every computer has a processor that lets the device think and act on its own so it can power itself. There is also a processor in a smartwatch so it is acting as a mini computer on your hand every time you wear it. My friend has the new Apple watch and it is amazing the amount of things it can do for something being as small as the Apple Watch is. It makes life much easier with tracking your daily movements to being so convenient that you do not have to take your phone out of your pocket. With your head phones plugged into the watch you are able to talk to someone on the phone without even taking out your phone. Apple introduced Siri which is also included in the Watch and anytime you have any questions at all she can answer them for you very quickly. Apple Pay is new to Apple and is something where you do not even need to take out your wallet that has your credit card in it to pay. All you need to do is hold up your watch to the machine and the transaction will go through. We are living in a world that is rapidly changing and soon enough we will have everything loaded on to our smart wrist watch.

Honestly, when I first saw the apple watch, I thought it was one of the most useless inventions I ever saw. I can’t imagine having a phone on my wrist. I also think that it is a very annoying invention and it is not practical for everyday use. Mobile smartphones are already mobile and handheld enough. How hard is it to take the phone out of your pocket? Why should it be on your wrist? It limits what you can do and it is even more of a distraction than a cell phone.
My first experience with a smart watch was in one of my classes. Someone’s phone started ringing in the middle of class and the person answered the call with the watch. The whole class looked and listened to her talking into her wrist, telling her mom that she was in class. I have no idea why she didn’t just ignore the call; probably because she wanted everyone to know that she had a $2000 apple watch. That is one reason why it is impractical. In order to talk on the phone, you need to have it on speaker, making privacy nonexistent. Another problem with these watches is there price tag. They are too expensive for most people to buy. At $2000, it cannot become a household item. It will take a few years for them to become affordable for most people. And for an additional $2000 on top of the cost of the phone, it is not worth having because the phone does more than the watch and it is less expensive.
I think that having a phone on your wrist when there is a phone in your pocket it just lazy. Just get the phone out of your pocket. Why would anyone pay twice as much the price of the phone just to have it on a smaller, less useful screen a few seconds closer to your eyes? Are those few seconds worth $2000? You would have to be very wealthy to be worth $2000 per second. I honestly think one would have to be either very gullible to advertisements or incredibly lazy to get this watch. It is literally a useless piece of technology. It is amazing that all of that can be in such a small package, but there comes a point when it loses its value because it is not practical enough. What benefit is someone actually getting out of this one of these watches?
I think there are many people that have the same opinion on the watches that I do, given the amount of people that have them. I have only seen 3 people wear one of these smart watches, so either people can’t afford to buy one, or they believe that they are as big of a waste of money as I do.
The only practical situations that I see for these devices is a place where people cant readily use their hands. People that work in very dangerous conditions where they cant reach into their pocket because they would need to let go of safety equipment. I see these being useful in military environments or for people that work on cell towers or firefighters and policemen. Besides that, I don’t see them ever being useful. I think it would be good for apple or Samsung to get a contract with the government to get police and firefighters using these things. If not, the products will go extinct.

The most interesting piece of technology out right now is the Smart watch. This is due to the fascination of a technology like this for many years. The first successful smart watch that got my eye first was the Samsung watch. This smart watch featured kind of the same features that Apple’s smart watch has. The smart watch is an idea that has been swirling around for generations and especially after Sci-Fi shows like star-trek. I never really knew there was a fascination for a technology like this until my father told me after watching a commercial for the Apple watch. I noticed that this fascination is due to the fact that it is so foreign for older people like my father to even think that there is a technology out there. The interesting part about these watches is the voice recognition.

As if it is an artificial technology that is self- aware of its existences. The creation of this technology really shows the truth behind Moore’s law. Technology has continued to evolve throughout the years so quickly that technology does not need as much space as previously conceived. We know have the capability to make this smaller, but still have as much technology as a computer contains. These watches are able to call, use internet, Gps. Those are the same things that my iphone are capable of doing. Technology has visibly gotten smaller throughout the years with the evolution of the phone. The cell phone use to look like a brick and now technology has gotten so advanced since that time that we are able of making something 3 times as small, but with significantly more technology. Looking at the video I had no clue that there was variants of the smart watch that came out in the 90’s. Different companies had the same idea because they knew the demand for a technology like this is definitely high. The time period though did not allow them to make a smart watch like we have today, due to lack of technology. Some of those watches even were analog to make them look futuristic. That is the main point behind the smart watch because it is such an advanced piece of technology. Everyone is obsessed with wanting futuristic technology. This is something that can even be seen in the movie back to the future. When that movie came out everyone was so pumped for what the future had in store. They kind of over sold the future because we are currently in the year that they traveled to and it looks nothing like that. The next great advancement in technology that is going to get everyone out of their seats is flying cars. That is something that I can see releasing in the near future.

Starting in around second grade, the school would issue every student a copy of the quarterly scholastic news catalog. This catalog listed all types of different books, magazines, and other scholastic materials, but in addition to that they would always have little tech gadgets that always caught the kid’s eyes more than the books. I remember ordering some stuff like a pen that had a calculator built in and glow in the dark walkie talkies that were supposed to look like phones with an ear piece and that began my interest in tech built into unconventional things. However, now that the advancements have been made to create legitimate items like the Apple watch and Fitbit, I am not completely sold on spending the money on one of those items. Yes, I am amazed at all the features that the Apple watch has and the apps that it can run for its first attempt at the product, but when it comes to what I am choosing to wear on my wrists I haven’t been convinced that I should purchase one. I have several friends that purchased the first model of the Apple watch and they love to wear it. At this point I find it to be a little more than a talking point. It always starts out “oh wow is that the new Apple watch” and then they show a couple features and that’s it. The little viewing that come from friends isn’t enough to persuade me to go out and look into getting one. Personally I have found it to be more useful for females even though I’ve seen more males with it. The reason I say that is because females often have to deal with their phones being in their purse. With the ability to answer calls, check messages and virtually do all the little needs that could possibly arise while their phone is in a not so accessible position. Personally I can’t think of any one thing or a couple of things that could be added to the current features of the watch that would convince me to purchase one but the regular fit bit that tracks calories burned, steps and sleep patterns intrigues me. I would definitely pay $15 for those features to better my health. However, $350 for a little screen is not what im really looking for despite the parts of it that are attractive. Personally, I would rather spend $350 or more on a watch that just told time but was very classy and attractive than wear the screen regardless of the band that I chose. Currently I believe the issue with the smart watch is that it doesn’t solve a need. Obviously not nearly everything does, but in this case it is just another piece of very cool technology that intrigues many people but it’s an expensive and fashionable, to an extent, toy. Therefore like any toy it attracts a certain crowd and until it can attract people from outside of the current crowd it will remain a cool toy that you can wear and get use out of, but with limitations.

The smartwatch was a technology geek’s dream in the preceding decades. It’s the stuff they dreamed when going to bed at night, the stuff that came to mind when a grade school assignment was geared around creativity. It was science fiction only seen in the lives of Spoch and James Bond. Now it is reality. However, the smartwatch aggravates me just as much as it amazes me. After watching Yalcin’s video, I am amazed at the leaps and bounds watch technology has taken in the last couple of decades. But the video also left me thinking about simplicity. Why does the human race always want things like watches to be complicated and smart? Why not have a watch that does its job and tells you the time with no strings attached? Part of the reason why the smartwatch is developed is due to society focusing all its resources on achieving efficiency. By the looks of the smartwatch commercial, pulling out a cellphone to answer call is too much work and inefficient. That is where the problem lies with smartwatch for me. Though these devices represent the tip of technological iceberg, they are also contributing massively to the detriment of human society. Think about it, if you were the owner of a smartwatch and decide to pick up a call from your parent using it. This phone call may contain private details that cannot be shared with the surrounding people. Do you really want to have that information blasting itself at you out of your wrist of all places? It defeats the purpose of privacy. In my opinion an individual looks very out of place in whatever environment they are present in currently when talking to their wrists or making gestures and drawing things on a watch. The idea of having notifications constantly buzzing and distracting one also does not appeal to me. Aaron Varghese also mentioned the issue of cheating and unethical behavior through the use of a smartwatch in a previous comment that I completely agree with. He summarizes that the smartwatch seems to only increase the ease and the amount of cheating that some individuals conduct in their lives. As a result, it is a big detriment to the younger generation of today. This coupled with the expensive costs of actually buying a decent smartwatch like the Moto360 or the Apple Watch make it one of most aggravating pieces of modern technology for me. Nevertheless, I do have to give the industry credit where it’s due. The smartwatch is a modern marvel. It does things that a few years ago were out of reach for a smartphone. It follows the trend of technology which is typically smaller, faster and prettier with every new generation. Ultimately, the smartwatch is a device that some will love for its technological brilliance, while others loath because it increases the effect of technology in our lives and everyday tasks such as checking the time.